Howard Dean may hope that the "healing will begin
today," but two blocks away from the northwest
Washington Marriott where the DNC's Rules and Bylaws
Committee is meeting right now to try to figure out
Florida and Michigan, the Hillary protesters are
occupying an utterly alternate (and healing-free)
universe: a universe in which one of the big lawn
rally's speakers yells that the Democratic Party no
longer is in the business of "promoting equality and
fairness for all"; in which a Hillary supporter with
two poodles shouts, "Howard Dean is a leftist freak!";
in which a man exhibits a sign that reads "At least
slaves were counted as 3/5ths a Citizen" and shows
Dean whipping handcuffed people; and in which Larry
Sinclair, the Minnesota man who took to YouTube to
allege that Barack Obama had oral sex with him in the
back of a limousine in 1999, is one of the belles of
the ball.

"They almost made me cry this morning when they told
me to get out of there," the blond Sinclair--who's
looking roly-poly and giddy in a blue-and-white
striped shirt with a pack of Marlboros protruding from
the breast pocket--says, referring to several nervous
protest organizers who tried to evict him when he
first showed up at the rally site early this morning
carrying a box of "Obama's DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS:
Murder, Drugs, Gay Sex" fliers. Since then, though, he
goes on, "I have been totally surprised by the
reception I have received!"

He's not kidding. Clusters of people in Hillary shirts
ask to take their photo with him, one woman covered in
Clinton buttons introduces him to Greta Van Susteren,
and he estimates he has handed out 500 fliers. "You
could improve your credibility if you downplayed the
gay sex and focused on the drugs," sagely advises one
Hillary supporter with auburn hair and elegant makeup.
But in this universe, Sinclair's credibility doesn't
seem to be suffering too much. In fact, he's treated
nearly as well as he might be at a meeting of the Vast
Right-wing Conspiracy. In the thirty minutes I stand
with him, only one woman expresses disgust at his
fliers and his willingness to chattily discourse on
whether Obama is "good in bed."

Earlier, he claims, he even got to take a picture with
Charlie Rangel. "I love him!" Sinclair chirps, though,
it must be said, not as much as he loves Lanny Davis.

Has it come to this? We tend to assume the Hillary
camp's hot rhetoric--that Obama's less ready than
McCain to be commander-in-chief, that the DNC in
Florida is like Mugabe in Zimbabwe--is studied,
purposeful, that they can't really believe it. That
may be true at the Lanny Davis level, but by the time
it trickles down to Hillary's most grassroots
supporters, it becomes deadly serious.

Of the eight Hillary supporters I quiz at the protest
(six of them women), only one says she'd even consider
voting for Obama in the fall. "It's sad. I'm a
lifelong Democrat and the party's been taken over by
these Obama people who say they want 'change,'" gripes
Linda of Horseheads, New York, outside the Marriott as
a honking car decorated with a painting of Hillary, a
glued-on bust of Cleopatra, and a tampon drives by.
Linda, she says, has already gone to the state Board
of Elections to learn how to write Hillary's name in
in November. "So much has been stolen from her."

Justine, a self-described "diehard Democrat" from
Greensboro, North Carolina, objects to the write-in
idea. "It's gonna help Barack if you don't vote
against him," she says. She and her friends got
Sinclair to autograph their copies of the "Murder,
Drugs, Gay Sex" flier. One of those friends, Jeannie,
is living proof that, at least for some people, the
long primary has done its damage. "When [Obama] first
came out, we just thought he was too young," she
explains. "But now I don't think he's qualified at
all."

It's easy to sink into despair here. Standing and
watching all these Democrats chat up Sinclair--who's
retained Montgomery Blair Sibley as his lawyer and
says the Republican National Committee has also been
in touch with him--makes me want to fall to my knees,
rend my garments, and start insanely screaming, "Wake
up! Wake up! You'll hate a President John McCain!" But
the rhetoric from the top has imparted its poison
below, and the bitterest criticisms of Obama gain
traction as they circulate through the
virulently-pro-Hillary echo chamber. "Would you rather
have a president who had an affair [Bill Clinton] or
one who was a murderer [Obama]?" Jeannie, the
Greensboro Democrat, asks a fellow in a floppy Tilley
hat and Hillary buttons. "That's a good point," he
replies.

Following instructions from Obama HQ, almost no Obama
supporters have shown up to protest, amplifying the
impression of the alternate Hillary universe. But
around the edges, a few small signs of the other
universe peek through, the one in which Barack Obama
leads and most Democrats don't suspect him of multiple
felonies. Inside the Marriott's gift shop, the sales
clerk tells me that Democratic bumper stickers have
been selling like crazy today. "Mostly Hillary?" I
ask.

"Actually, mostly Obama," she giggles.

--Eve Fairbanks

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